An environmental checkup for business

How’s your economic eco-system?

Business is often asked to consider two popular notions: sustainability and the environment. At times – and probably too often – they are simply buzzwords; at other times, they focus on the need for everyone – business included – to take responsibility for the sustainability of the planet.

That’s all well and good but it need not stop at the natural environment. We can learn a lot more from environmental science across the entire spectrum of management practice.

Your business does not operate in a vacuum. It depends on all sorts of stakeholders. Just think of the six basic ones: shareholders, managers, employees, suppliers, customers and the community. Together they make up the ecology of your business. Call them species if you like.

They all depend on each other and have needs which have to be served. Often we focus only on serving the customers. Yet you can’t expect your business eco-system to function optimally if you ignore the others.

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Why middle management isn't dead

It’s more like re-birthing

It’s fashionable to say it’s over for middle managers. The theory goes that everything they did before either is, or will be, sorted out by new technology.

I don’t know what businesses these people are talking about. But let’s take an obvious candidate – Information Technology.  Change in that industry is rapid, and technology is increasingly complex. But I have yet to find an IT company that isn’t dependent on sound middle management to make sure they can reliably deliver their services.

Middle management is not dying; it’s being redefined. The skill set is changing, but it still requires skill. Someone has to make sure that something is happening. Try running any business where you don’t have a strata of middle managers to ensure that strategy is turned into action.

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Recycle the cycle

More work for your think tank 

The Great Recession was a great reminder on one great fact: the business cycle is not dead. There have been about ten recessions in my lifetime – one about every five to six years. Get used to them. If you are 35 now, expect another half a dozen before you retire.

There are a few other cycles we should also be aware of. There’s the life cycle of your products. They don’t remain fashionable forever. There’s also the life cycle of your business. It might begin as an exciting start-up. If it doesn’t crash and burn, there is a good chance it will evolve into a mature entity. But if it is like most companies, eventually it will go into decline.

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So you want to be an excellent manager?

Are the usual things holding you back?

What are the usual things? They relate to these personal questions: do I have what it takes? Can I lead? Is my strongest suit strong enough?

The answer to all three is yes, but we often stumble over these questions. That’s ok. It means you are self-aware. If you don’t stumble over them, you may not have the humility to survive as a manager, let alone take the steps to make you one in the first place. Here’s five simple things you should do if you want to be a great manager.

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